It Goes Far Beyond “Just Avoid Sugar”!

“Don’t consume sugary food and beverages”. The token phrase of the dental profession. While this absolutely must be the first step to oral and overall health, it only scratches the surface of the nutritional needs of your teeth, jaws, and whole body, for that matter.

Most patients who strictly limit sugar consumption will have much less decay, and most patients with periodontal disease will stabilize and maintain bone after periodontal treatment. However, there are always some outliers. That patient who, regardless of very limited sugar consumption, still has active tooth decay that requires treatment. The patient who presents with persistent areas of periodontal inflammation and bone loss, even after completion of otherwise successful periodontal treatment and maintenance. These situations are very frustrating for both patients and providers, and we owe it to ourselves to consider why this is happening, in order to best prevent disease and promote health.

Let’s have more of a conversation about the DO’s, with a brief review of the big DON’T.

DON’T consume sugar:

• Topical effects of sugar. We all have colonies of bacteria in our mouths. Good guys and bad guys. The bad guys that colonize our teeth are called Strep mutans. When you give your teeth a bath in sugary food and beverage, these guys chow down on the sugar and secrete acid that destroys tooth structure, stripping its mineral content.
• Systemic effects of sugar. With no nutritional content, high doses of simple sugars overwhelm the body with a lot of work trying to manage it all- working to convert all of the excess to storage form, keeping homeostasis. Too much sugar wreaks havoc on the system, creating chaos and systemic inflammation. In a chronic inflammatory state, our bodies lose their ability to effectively heal and repair cell damage from everyday wear and tear. This brings chronic disease of many varieties.

Our teeth have the fascinating ability to strengthen and heal from within. Within each of our teeth is a support system called the dental pulp, with its own nerve and blood supply. This support system needs nourishment for peak performance, much deeper than just “avoid sugar”.

DO consume nutrient-dense foods along with the good, healthy fats necessary for proper absorption and utilization of these nutrients.

• Calcium and Phosphorus. The lead singers. Our teeth, and the bone surrounding them, depend on a consistent supply of some key vitamins and minerals. Enamel is roughly 95% calcium and phosphate, organized in crystallized structures called hydroxyapatite. Bone scaffolding uses the same minerals. To promote and maintain health in teeth and the jaw bone around them, they need mineral support of this structure. Remember, these minerals are stripped from enamel by the acidic byproducts of the “bad guy” bacteria on our teeth. These minerals are also essential to fight the chronic inflammatory bone breakdown that comes with periodontal disease.
• Vitamins D and K2. The background dancers. We can ingest all of the calcium our little hearts desire, but adequate levels of a couple of key vitamins are necessary for our bodies to even be able to use it, and use it appropriately. Vitamin D and Vitamin K2 are critical for calcium absorption and distribution. Calcium is not absorbed or properly distributed without these key players. With a little bit of sunlight, our bodies can synthesize Vitamin D, but get some in your diet to assure adequate levels. Vitamin K2 is an essential vitamin, meaning that it must come from our diet.
• Healthy fats. Vitamins D and K2 are fat soluble vitamins. This means that adequate dietary fat must be present for these Vitamins to go where they need to go and do what they need to do.

Here are 7 hassle-free ways to work this into your diet and your life:

1. Cooking good quality meat on the bone allows many bone nutrients to infuse the meat. Rather than the boneless skinless chicken breast, cook the whole darn chicken in the crock pot. Instead of using a boneless pork loin to make your pulled pork, dazzle everyone with a bone-in pork shoulder. Hubby and I had a date night last weekend. I didn’t order the fancy little filet mignon. I ordered the bone-in ribeye, baby!
2. Turn it up a notch and save all of these bones to make your own bone broth. Slow cooking bones extracts so many phenomenal nutrients! Use this magical broth in soups, substitute it for water when cooking rice and quinoa, add some spices to a warm mug and just drink it. For my no-fuss bone broth, check out my previous Instagram post
3. Load up on healthy fats like butter, fatty cheese, full fat yogurt, kefir, avocado, eggs, extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil.
4. Egg yolk and dairy products can be good sources of Vitamin D and K2, as well! You want the full-fat stuff for the best vitamin bang for your buck. For your dairy, go as raw and grass-fed as you are able. Less allergies are reported with this AND animals synthesize Vitamin K2 when digesting grass. I buy local Picket Fence creamery whole milk and heavy whipping cream at my local Hyvee. If you’re going to add anything to your coffee, add plain old love-in-your-mouth heavy whipping cream! You’re welcome!
5. Organ meats (from grass-fed animals) are also a great source of Vitamin K2. Liver pate, anyone?? I found a great recipe for liver pate in Dr. Steven Lin’s book, The Dental Diet. Even my 7 year old loves it! Find yourself a local farmer, who pasture raises their animals, for your meat and eggs. If you’re in central Iowa or Illinois, try mine- he’s fantastic! Nick Wallace is his name, quality meat is his game. https://99counties.com/
6. Non-animal sources of Vitamin K2 include many fermented foods. Naturally fermented sauerkraut (for the true fermented stuff, you’re looking for not much more than cabbage and salt in the ingredients). Kimchi. Natto and miso (fermented soy).
7. If the food sources aren’t doing it for you, there’s a supplement for that. Thanks to the suggestion of a great functional medicine MD friend of mine, I have found a double doozie of a supplement with BOTH Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2!! Made by NOW Supplements.

Take this info and run with it. Here’s to health!

~Dr. Mindy